Frimpong and Kerkez Exposed as Liverpool’s Soft Spot Continues
Every side chasing a title has a pressure point that rivals eventually find. For Liverpool this season, it is not hard to spot. The full back areas have become the place opponents look to attack first, and the pattern has repeated often enough now that it cannot be waved away as a one off.
Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez were both brought in with attacking output front of mind, energetic, direct, comfortable bombing forward and adding numbers in the final third. Neither was signed primarily as a lockdown defender, and that trade off is now showing up in games that get stretched. Former Premier League defender Richard Dunne addressed exactly this in an interview with Liverpool.com, pointing squarely at the full back positions as the area holding the team back from being genuinely title ready.
Why the Full Backs Keep Getting Caught Out
Dunne’s central argument is that Liverpool’s problems are not really about raw ability, they are about positioning and discipline when the ball is lost. Both full backs push high and wide, which is exactly what the system under Andoni Iraola wants from them, but the space they leave behind is not always covered quickly enough. When possession turns over in those moments, Liverpool are left exposed to counters through the exact channels Frimpong and Kerkez have just vacated.
That is a structural issue as much as an individual one. Iraola wants an aggressive, front footed team that commits bodies forward and presses high, and that approach can absolutely work at the top level. The trouble comes when the distances between the lines are wrong, because then the team is neither compact enough to defend well nor coordinated enough in the press to win the ball back before the damage is done.
Van Dijk Cannot Fix Everything Alone
The knock on effect lands on Virgil van Dijk more than anyone. He remains one of the most complete defenders in the league in terms of reading the game and organising those around him, but he is not the recovery machine he was several years ago, and asking him to sweep up every gap left by an open midfield or an exposed full back is not sustainable across a full season. Dunne’s point about the midfield not holding its shape ties directly into this. If the players in front of the back four are not screening properly, Van Dijk ends up isolated in wide areas he should never have to cover alone.
This is where the full back conversation becomes a wider conversation about balance. Liverpool are creating chances and scoring goals, which papers over some of the defensive cracks, but a title winning side over a full campaign cannot rely on outscoring its problems indefinitely. Eventually a run of games against sides who specifically target the flanks will punish that approach, and that is the scenario Dunne is warning against.
What Happens Next
There is a reasonable case that this gets fixed on the training ground rather than in the transfer market. Iraola has shown at previous clubs that he can build teams which play on the front foot without being defensively porous, and the raw attributes Frimpong and Kerkez have, pace, recovery speed, aggression in the tackle, suggest they can defend better within a tighter structure. Coaching the distances and the recovery patterns is not a quick fix, but it is achievable within a season.
That said, options in January should not be ruled out if the pattern continues into the winter months. A specialist who offers more defensive certainty without sacrificing too much going forward would give Iraola license to rotate and manage the two incumbents rather than relying on them for every fixture. Depth at full back has looked thin at times, and that shortage makes the current issues harder to manage around.
Our View
We think Dunne is right to flag this, and we would rather hear it said plainly than have it glossed over because results have generally gone Liverpool’s way. Frimpong and Kerkez are talented players who add real value in possession, and neither should be written off as a defensive liability long term. But the pattern of teams isolating them and attacking the space in behind is now clear enough that it needs addressing before it costs points that matter in the title race.
If Iraola can tighten the structure and get the midfield screening the back line properly, this becomes a manageable coaching problem rather than a defining weakness. If it persists into the new year, reinforcements should be seriously considered. Either way, ignoring it is not an option if Liverpool want to be taken seriously as contenders.